it's a long comedy of I don't know what...

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Two nights ago I can't find medicine for my gut and I know it's in the house. I turn the house upside down and can't find it. Finally I figure out it's in the car, so I head out in the evening to check the car (in my slippers and bathrobe) only to find out it's raining. Naturally I parked the car outside instead of in the garage. I get in the car and start searching. I lean over the armrest to dig in the back seat and I hear this loud "pop". I don't move and think (insert favorite expletive) "omg, I've cracked a rib!"  I trudge back thru the rain (without medicine) into the house, where I have to share the news with husband who is busily packing for a business trip, the one I swore he could go on because "everything was good". So now I tell him, yes, I may have cracked a rib, but still, everything is good. I show him on the internet (multiple sites) that the treatment for a cracked rib is just otc pills or prescription pain pills (which I already have) and there's no need for the hospital because I can breathe just fine, he doesn't leave til morning so if there are changes, blah, blah, blah, I'll call my doc the next day, etc. 

So, no changes, just same pain, so I send him off. I call my doctor's office the next day, late morning and leave a message, They get back to me and say, hold tight, we'll talk to the doc. Eventually they call and the doc says get to the clinic NOW and have this bloodwork and set of xrays done. I'm like "sure, as soon as my daughter and I finish lunch" because she happens to have the day off. She sighs because this is yet another day ruined due to mom's illness. I swear to her it will be quick and it was. we head back home and resume our day (she's painting) when we get a call from my doc freaking out because my d-dimer is off the charts (crp isn't back yet). Get to hospital now, suspected clot. I'm like, what about the cracked rib? Forget the rib!

Well as those of you with children know, there is no NOW. 2 hours later I'm in the hospital emergency room, after packing my daughter for an overnight, making her lunch for the next day because she has dietary issues, and finding a place to dump her for the night. I get to the hospital, park in the wrong place, go into the wrong doors, can't find the emergency part, end up having to go back out, find my car, drive to the emergency front doors and park (I'm blaming gabapentin for this stupidity, though topamax may have had a share of it). They take me right away even though it's busy and I spend the next hour filling out forms and trying to explain why my doc thought it was so important that I come to the emergency room. Eventually, after I've paid (yes, this is America) , they decide to run the same tests plus some more, a CT scan, etc. The only obstacle is that i have no veins. 4 different attempts to find a place to put in an IV fail (IV for CT scan has to be above wrist). They stick one in the hand to get blood for the bloodwork and then give up, telling the doc she'll have to run a different type of CT scan (apparently more expensive and longer). I tell them to keep trying, I'm game, so they send in Troy, who finally finds a vein in my forearm that works. Oh the bruises! meanwhile I finally get my IV and CT scan. More delay (thank goodness I brought a book and embroidery). 

Of course, husband knows nothing of this. I figure, why worry him when there isn't anything to tell him? I'll wait til there's news. I was going to tell him when he called between plane flights but that's when he shared with me that a friend called. One of this best friends from college has been given a diagnosis of malignant brain cancer and has been given a few months to live. Nope, I figure my news can wait.

Eventually the doctors come back in and share with me the news. Apparently I'm suffering from a "chronic PE," one that's been there for who knows how long, but it didn't develop overnight. Prescription is LMWH in mega dose 2x a day, see my GP and hematologist (and I have one because i have Factor V leiden!). They didn't feel I needed to be hospitalized, thank goodness, because I was breathing just fine, ECG was good, etc and everyone wants to save money. Eventually they let me go, and I'm due to see my GP the minute she gets into the office this a.m. Best part, ER thinks I did crack a rib but it's not showing up on the xray (after all that calcium/vit d/magnesium I've been taking too). 

Hilarious note: the entire time I'm in the ER, the nurses blamed Prednisone for everything. No vein? Pred. Fractured rib? Pred. Possible PE? Pred. and Factor V leiden. Now these are all legit, but it was just so comforting to hear someone else say it :D. 

So now I'll probably be on anticoagulants for life, and given the choice between coumadin, a very crappy drug I've already tried and after 6 long months they couldn't get me stable on, or one of the new drugs, which are just that,and there are already lawsuits. Oh the fun. Meanwhile, it's all Prednisone's fault wink. And I have to break the news to husband at some point. The longer I wait, the angrier he'll be that didn't tell him right away, but really, what could he do but worry about nothing? And maybe help me pull of these annoying krazy glued on ECG stickers. I keep finding them all over my body. And by the time he gets home I'm going to be a mass of bruises due to the IV attempts and anticoagulant, thus looking even worse than it all is. *sigh* And here I was trying to be a good corporate wife and letting him go on a business trip, first one since all this crap happened.

And I still can't find the medicine for my gut. It's not in the car. 

7 likes, 27 replies

27 Replies

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  • Posted

    This is the sort of story where you just have to laugh or you would cry!!

    Do you still need the medicine for your gut? I think I would probably have forgotten about it by now with all the otther stuff that is going on!!

    Good luck with everything!

  • Posted

    Bloody hell lisa! Now like you I try to make light if all this PMR/preds stuff but even I don't think I would be quite as relaxed about all this as you are.

    if I've got this right, PE I assume stands for pulmonary embolism? My friend also has one of those and simply has a scan yearly to check its not got past the whatever cm mark. Imagine a missing medication led to the discovery of that.

    what I suggest is you keep your medication in 2 places, that way it will always be somewhere easy to find. Then I suggest you take it easy just for a couple of days.

    all the best, christina 

  • Posted

    You are priceless! And I can just imagine what he'll say when he gets back - he'll refuse to ever go away again! 

    There are coumarin derivatives - I'm on sintrom which is used more here in italy than coumarin itself. Maybe worth a try?

    Do hope you are sorted fairly quickly...

  • Posted

    OMG Lisa,  

    I can't believe this has happened to you.  You certainly have to deal with more than your fair share and again you humor carries you through.  Like Janet says you have to laugh or you would just cry.

    I hope your husband is understanding and that you are on the mend soon.

    Hugs, Diana🌸

     

  • Posted

    You poor girl! You're right that if you don't laugh about this stuff, you'd sit down and cry and have a nervous breakdown. Congrats on keeping your sense of humor despite all this. That's the only thing that's kept me sane through all the stuff with my PMR too.
  • Posted

    Goodness Lisa! And some of us think we are having a tough time, I think you beat most of us.

    At least your humour is still intact!

    Here's hoping you get on an even keel. X

  • Posted

    Goodness what a story......I would have been in tears the way I am feeling at the moment with fatilgue so well done for keeping up the humour and hope all goes well with your hubby!
  • Posted

    Great that you still have somewhat of a  sense of humor amid all those

    problems happening at once.....I'm a Florida woman...hang it there.

    Things will get better........what is chronic PE?

    • Posted

      In the lung?   blood clot?  Wow, thought that was

      very dangerous and needed immediate treatment.

    • Posted

      Yes - but you can have a PE that isn't very severe and you barely notice there is a problem and it doesn't get treated. Or you have one and they treat it but it doesn't go away altogether, a tiny bit is left still restricting the blood flow. It stays there and may get worse as other tiny clots catch on it or the blood flow is restricted and causes increased blood pressure because of the partial blockage. This may lead to damage to the lungs and to the heart causing right sided heart failure but it progresses very slowly. That's why it is called chronic PE rather than acute. It still requires immediate treatment when it is found - you never know how severe the damage is so you can't risk leaving it. But it isn't quite as life-threatening as acute PE. 

      All things are relative...

    • Posted

      EileenH is right. mine was a small, old PE that apparently wasn't as exciting as other PEs. They don't get too worked up if your breathing is okay and you have no symptoms. I was fine, they just found it accidentally via bloodwork and CT scan. Now had I had real breathing problems or some other symptoms (my heart was fine), I suspect they would have admitted me in the hospital. Or if I asked them to do so. I was comfortable with being treated and released, and sent to my GP the next morning. I've done the injections before so it's not new to me. 
  • Posted

    Oh Lisa you brought me back to many many years ago and it was Christmas day.  Just myself and my two young sons.  And everything that could have went wrong, did go wrong, but like yourself I just had to keep on going.  My gas ran out when I was cooking turkey, a kitchen cupboard fell from the wall.  My back door (which was half glass) smashed as my eldest son was trying to get out to get me something out of my freezer which was in a store at the back of my house.  I think because it was Christmas, it actually saved my sanity lol  Loved your story, bitter sweet, but yet you can still laugh at yourself.  I am the same and it's a gift.  Good luck.  Pat
    • Posted

      omg, what a christmas!

      Laughing is really all that's left at times like this. you just have to sit back and wait for the next thing to happen, convinced that it's going to be interesting. 

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